Part 72

"If you only will, Polly," cried Jasper, seizing both of her hands, "it will be the best piece of work you ever did."

"Oh, I can't do it alone," exclaimed Polly, in consternation. "Never in all this world, Jasper, unless you help too."

"Then we'll both try our very best," said Jasper. "I'm sure I ought to; 'twould be mean enough to expect you to go at such a task alone."

"Oh, you couldn't be mean, Jasper," declared Polly, in horror at the very thought.

"Well, I should be if I left you to tackle this by yourself," said Jasper, with a grim little laugh. "So Polly, there's my hand on it. I'll help you."

And Polly ran back to pick up her ribbons and dress for dinner, feeling somehow very happy after all, that there was something she could do for dear Grandpapa to help him bear this great calamity.

Tom Beresford, meanwhile, withdrew from the great hall when Johnson ushered in the tall, stately woman and her French maid, and took shelter in the library. And Mrs. Whitney, coming over the stairs, saying, "Well, Cousin Eunice, did you have a pleasant journey?" in the gentle voice Tom so loved, gave him the first inkling of the relationship. But he wrinkled his brows at Joel's exclamation, and his queer way of rushing off.

"You know journeys always tire me, Marian. So that your question is quite useless. I will sit in the library a moment to recover myself. Hortense, go up and prepare my room," and she sailed into the apartment, her heavy silk gown swishing close to Tom's chair.

"Who is that boy?" she demanded sharply. Then she put up her lorgnette, and examined him closely as if of a new and probably dangerous species.

Tom slipped off from his chair and stiffened up.

"It's one of Joel's friends," said Mrs. Whitney, slipping her hand within the tall boy's arm. "The boys are at home from school for a week."

"Joel's friends," repeated Mrs. Chatterton, paying scant attention to the rest of the information. Then she gave a scornful cackle. "Haven't you gotten over that nonsense yet, Marian?" she asked.

"No; and I trust I never shall," replied Mrs. Whitney with a happy smile. "Now, Cousin Eunice, as you wish to rest, we will go," and she drew Tom off.

"My boy," she said, releasing him in the hall, to give a bright glance up at the stormy, astonished face above her, "I know you and Joel will get dressed as rapidly as possible for dinner, for my father will not want to be annoyed by a lack of promptness to-night." She did not say, "because he will have annoyance enough," but Tom guessed it all.

"I will, Mrs. Whitney," he promised heartily. And, thinking he would go to the ends of the earth for her, to be smiled on like that, he plunged off over the stairs.

"I've seen the old cat," he cried in smothered wrath to Joel, rushing into his room.

Joel sat disconsolately on the edge of his bed, kicking off his heavy shoes, to replace with his evening ones.

"Have you?" said Joel grimly. "Well, isn't she a--" then he remembered Mamsie, and snapped his lips to.

"'A,'" exclaimed Tom, in smothered wrath, as he closed the door. "She isn't 'a' at all, Joe. She's 'the.'"

"Well, do be still," cried Joel, putting on his best shoes nervously, "or you'll have me saying something. And she's visiting here; and Mamsie wouldn't like it. Don't, Tom," he begged.

"I won't," said Tom, with a monstrous effort, "but--oh dear me!" Then he rushed into his own room and banged about, getting his best clothes out.

"Shut the door," roared Joel after him, "or you'll begin to fume, and I can't stand it, Tom; it will set me off."

So Tom shut the door; and with all these precautions going on over the house, all the family in due time appeared at dinner, prepared as best they could be to bear the infliction of Mrs. Chatterton's return.

And after the conclusion of the meal, why, everybody tried to forget it as much as possible, and give themselves up to the grand affair of the evening.

And old Mr. King, who had been consumed with fear that it would have a disastrous effect on Polly and Jasper, the chief getters-up of the entertainment, came out of his fright nicely; for there they were, as bright and jolly as ever, and fully equal to any demands upon them. So he made up his mind that, after all, he could put up with Cousin Eunice a bit longer, and that the affair was to be an immense success and the very finest thing possible.

And everybody else who was present on the eventful occasion, said so too! And it seemed as if Mr. King's spacious drawing-room, famous for its capacity at all such times, couldn't possibly have admitted another person to this entertainment for the benefit of the poor brakeman's family.

And Joel, who wasn't good at recitations, and who detested all that sort of thing, and Van, for the same reason, were both in their element as ticket takers. And the little pink and yellow squares came in so thick and fast that both boys had all they could do for a while--which was saying a good deal--to collect them.

And everybody said that Miss Mary Taylor had never played such a beautiful overture--and she was capable of a good deal along that line--in all her life; and Phronsie, sitting well to the front, between old Mr. King and Helen Fargo, forgot that she ever had a hurt arm, and that it lay bandaged up in her lap.